[Idea] Entrepreneur School: Hands-on prototyping for non-technical founders
I recently idly tweeted an idea which flitted through my head while considering the pros and cons of “E-School”, the Founder Institute. People asked for more, so here it is!
To build a business you need to build a product. While technical types often find the process of knocking up a quick demo webapp a walk in the park, one way a non-technical person can quickly gain feedback and respect is to build a prototype themselves.
If you have an idea for a web application – whether it’s a shopping site with a twist, an iPhone app that shows you nearby tweets, a game to teach children about finances, or a global treasure hunt – chances are you can build an early version to get the idea across quite quickly, even without much of a background in computer science.
Today’s tools are accessible and almost universal, but they can be really daunting if you don’t know where to begin. The value of creating your first prototype yourself in terms of feedback, understanding the problems you’ll have, and even the exercise of trimming down the feature set and figuring out the MVP (minimum viable product) is far, far greater than the time saved outsourcing it to the Philippines.
But where are the tools to teach you how?
There’s stuff to turn hackers into entrepreneurs, but connecting entrepreneurs with the tools hackers have at their fingertips seems much less common.
Here are some of the ideas I have around creating a resource (offline workshops? week-long intensive? online course? incubator? unconference? wiki? website/blog? book?) to help people without a technical background build a prototype of their idea quickly, and get feedback on it.
Methods
- How to design, structure and plan a web application (see below for how to build)
- Rapid prototyping, iteration, and agile development (i.e. build it quickly, get feedback, change it)
- Minimum viable product and how to figure out what should be in your prototype
- Ways to test out your application; how to find initial users and get feedback (Real stories)
- Feedback channels for prototyping before you’ve written a line of code
- How to pull off an awesome investor demo (Interviews)
Technology and Tools
- Explanation of different technologies available and what it all means (without using baby language but without using jargon either)
- Easy, accessible tutorials, workshops and courses that help people quickly master the basics of a webapp framework like Ruby on Rails to put together a fully functioning application
- Readily available tools and libraries you can use to make this process a lot easier and quicker (e.g. off-the-shelf social networks you can customise)
- Mashups: What’s a mashup? How can I use Google Maps/Twitter/Facebook in my application? What’s possible and what isn’t?
- Real developers’ tips and techniques for “faking it” – how to make a demo look good when it’s only 10% complete (Interviews)
- Alternative technologies that allow you to use familiar tools to build a demo, e.g. Powerpoint mockups, OmniGraffle, spreadsheets, Photoshop, even setting up Wordpress to ‘fake’ a real site
- Hands on demonstration of an example prototype using these different methods (Initial idea for this: Building a site where dog owners can post their location and dog information and share walks)
Design
- Product and feature design techniques
- How to make the most of paper prototypes
- What’s wireframing and why should I bother? Won’t the designer do that?
- Designing an awesome user experience
- Visual design basics (Analysing/Breakdown of beautifully designed prototypes)
- How to make things look good and feel polished without a degree in graphics
- Readily available tools and products you can use to speed this along
Getting Help
- Ideally, build everything yourself; it really helps your credibility and teaches you a hell of a lot along the way. If this isn’t an option for whatever reason,
- How to outsource the building of a prototype
- How to find a developer and/or designer
- Once the prototype is built and you’re happy, how to find the right rockstar lead developer to take it forward
I’d love to hear some feedback on this idea and information on areas you particularly want to learn more about (whether I included them or not) — and how you’d like to consume the information.
Cheers,
Jen
Hey Jen,
Well, you’ve described exactly what I’d hoped for when you mentioned the idea on Twitter, plus a bit more.
Personally, I think a ‘live’ method like a workshop or week-long course would be the format I’d get the most from (and would therefore pay more for, if that’s your goal). A website would be great too.
As for further content ideas: I know a bit about user testing principles, but perhaps expanding on the principles of objective user research would be a nice add-on once the participants have come up with something to test.
Being someone who gets the value of lean start-up techniques, but eternally regrets not taking computer science, I’ve done a little research into the best way to acquire this kind of knowledge level. There seems to be hardly anything between ‘how to switch on your PC’ and the full degree. This would fill the gap nicely.
Mind you, I haven’t met too many people who understand the importance of using mock-ups to get to MVP who are also as tech-tarded as I. Interested to see if you find any more!
Helen.
hi Jen I’ve just read this, really the best idea I’ve heard in ages. A week long intensive would be really good, no distractions total focus, others to discuss with, arrive with an idea, leave with a prototype. I would totally help your run it, although not quite sure how (or where!) inspired, and feeling slightly less crazed about managing web projects having read this (already).
L